Celebrity Scoop: Eddie Kaye Thomas

Best known as Finch in the "American Pie" movies, Thomas also plays David Kaplan, the pal who's never quite cool enough, in HBO's "How to Make it in America" Sundays.

And he's in an off-Broadway drama, "The Submission," playing the lover of a man who writes a play under a false name.

"What's great for Pete's journey is he is just looking for love and comfort," Thomas says. "We can love our art so much and be so passionate; good theater, good music, good painting -- it's so tragic how those things can step on your personal life."

Yet this confluence of his art is all Thomas has ever wanted.

"It's very much like this is the moment I have been waiting for," Thomas says. "I have been doing this since I was little. So much time is spent hoping for things and wanting the next thing. For me, and a lot of other actors, it is a tough balance to find aspirations and hopes and at the same time, the contentment. I feel that right now.

"I have a great TV show on air, and I get to do a play every night," he says. "It just gets me excited for possibilities in the future."

Thomas never plotted a career. A Manhattan native, he began in a city-run program.

"I was a pretty big attention whore when I was a little kid," he says. "It just seemed like what I wanted to be doing, and that's what has been really fun about 'The Submission' and 'How to Make it in America' is it feels really special."

The ads for the HBO show grab his attention. "I see the posters and say, 'I want to be part of that.' Oh, my God," he says, "I am!"